23^rd September: Albany

This morning dawned grey and dreary. But, nevertheless, we packed up to move on. I realised that I had taken a photograph of the place we were staying at: Fonty's Pool. It is a really pretty caravan park, 8 kms out of Manjimup. The facilities are great and it seems it is very popular in the holiday season as there is plenty to occupy the children with and the parents can walk to wine and truffle tasting. We didn't: truffles are fungi and none of us fancied them. But, despite the rain, we did enjoy our stay here.

We drove, once again, thrrough pouring rain all the way to Walpole and the Valley of the Giants. Amazingly, there is no cafe there! We'd have loved to sit in the warm and have coffee. Glen went back to the car and made himself a 43 beans while Gail and I had a machine coffee while wandering around the gift shop which was small but packed with good stuff!

Donning rain coats and taking umbrellas, we walked through the rain and mist on the tree walk. We'd been there before but Gail really wanted to do it as she was held up by bush fires last time! It was really eerie walking through those giants in the mist but again, really beautiful. 

These are Tinglewoods – Eucalyptus jacksonii. They are very old, some 500 years, and are relics of the ancient times of Gondawana, like the Boab and Nothifagus in Tamborine Mtns. They are huge – very wide at the bases which are often burnt out and hollow, but not as tall as karri trees. They grow only in a small band of country of about 6000 hectares and these days there are boardwalks all around so that people don't trample on the roots which are fragile and near the top. Again, I had a sene of the amazing diversity and longevity of nature and how very precious these things are. 

 

We passed through Denmark. What a pretty town. I hope it is fine tomorrow and that we can go through it again.

After setting up camp at Albany, we went sight seeing – in the rain again. (That just means that we pull up, dive out and take photos or read information boards and then jump back into the car and ssit and contemplate!) What a magnificent natural harbour this is! I was a bit ambiguous about the piles of woodchip ready for export but I do like my newspapers! 

 

But this is the port from which the first Anzacs all left, including the lighthorse brigades. As a consequence they have built a stunning memorial, opened only this year, on the top of Mt Clarence. It is very different to the Geraldton memorial but almost as stunning! Not as moving but still very evocative! The names of many of the WA soldiers are at the bottom of trees forming an avenue as you drive up to the walk up the hill through a paved walk with evocative memories on plinths both sides. Then at the top is a big paved area (all granite of course) with a large plinth on which is the restored memorial to the Lighthorse men and horses. (It was originally at Sinai but was pulled down and almost destroyed during the Suez Canal uprising!) A pine tree grown from seeds found in cones gathered from the trenches (the Lone Pine was actually destroyed by shelling!) and almost 100 yrs old sits there at the side. It is a wonderful memorial!

We came home through town. A really interesting day!